• The share of gasoline cars in global car sales fell below 50 percent for the first time ever.

• Sales of electric cars in Europe rose by 52.2 percent in August compared with a year earlier.

• Electric car sales reached record levels in 50 countries in the second quarter, and 90 countries saw growth in the first half of the year.

Gasoline cars’ share below half

In the first half of 2026, sales of gasoline-powered cars, not counting hybrids, fell by 10 percent compared with the same period a year earlier. That equals 20.25 million cars. Their share of global car sales decreased by 3 percentage points to 49 percent. The figures come from the data company Mobility Global and were reported by Nikkei Asia.

This is the first time the share of gasoline cars has fallen below 50 percent.

China was first, the rest of the world is now following

China passed the 50 percent threshold for hybrids and electric cars as a share of all car sales a few years ago. The share is now about 55 percent. The rest of the world did not follow until the fuel markets were disrupted by the war in Iran.

The disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices around 100 dollars led to record-high prices for gasoline and diesel. Many consumers in Europe, South America and Asia Pacific then chose electric cars.

Europe: sharp increase in August

Sales of battery electric cars in Europe, including the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway, rose by 52.2 percent in August compared with August 2025. The figures come from the European automotive industry association ACEA.

In Germany, Europe’s largest car market, electric car sales rose by 75 percent in August. At the same time, the gasoline price in the country reached a record level of 2.31 euros per liter. In France, electric car sales more than doubled.

Germany introduced a purchase premium for electric cars from January 2026. According to an analysis by the German Institute for Economic Research, DIW, sales have increased. Between January and August, one in four new passenger cars in Germany was a pure electric car. In August, it was one in three. The average for 2025 was 19 percent.

Records in 50 countries

The International Energy Agency, IEA, described the development of electric car sales in July. After a weak start to the year, sales rose by 35 percent in the second quarter compared with the first quarter. According to the IEA, fuel price swings put the focus back on electric cars.

In the second quarter, electric car sales reached record levels in 50 countries. In Brazil, India, Australia and Vietnam, sales roughly doubled between March and June compared with the same period in 2025. In total, 90 countries saw growth in electric car sales in the first half of the year.

Analysts expect the trend to continue

Analysts at Wood Mackenzie assess that the development is expected to continue in global markets. They say the share of electric cars in the passenger car fleet could become higher than previously expected. The longer the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz affects the fuel markets, the stronger the case for electric cars becomes, according to the analysts.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. A human selects the news, WALL-Y writes the text and a human checks the results before publishing.

• An aircraft equipped with Joby Aviation's autonomy technology flew more than 3,100 miles across the United States without the pilot on board needing to intervene at any point.

• The aircraft handled taxiing, takeoff, navigation and landing on its own throughout the journey.

• The technology can be retrofitted onto many conventional aircraft and used for medical transport, disaster response, freight and defense.

The aircraft flew the entire route on its own

An aircraft equipped with Joby Aviation's autonomy technology has flown more than 3,100 miles across the United States. The pilot on board did not need to intervene at any point during the flight. The company announced this on Friday.

Joby describes the trip as the first-ever autonomous flight across the United States. The aircraft taxied, took off, navigated and landed on its own. The flight was remotely supervised from Joby's headquarters in California and from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina.

The pilot was on board for compliance. According to Joby, the aircraft performed the entire operation autonomously.

A converted Cessna

Joby used a converted Cessna Caravan aircraft for the trip. The company says the flight shows that the technology can handle different environments and missions. These include medical transport, disaster response and defense logistics.

The journey is not over. Over the next two weeks, the aircraft will make its way back to the West Coast. Along the way it will stop in several cities, including Louisville, Kentucky, and Salt Lake City.

Technology that fits many aircraft

Joby is best known for its electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs. They will be used as air taxis for short trips in urban areas. The company has spent years seeking type certification for them from the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA.

The autonomy stack is designed to be retrofitted onto a wide range of conventional aircraft. Joby plans to first bring to market a regional airframe equipped with the technology. It could be used for both defense missions and commercial freight transport. The effort has been supported by a 17 million dollar Air Force contract with AFWERX.

A growing defense business

Joby has a long-standing relationship with the U.S. Department of Defense. In August, the company acquired Resonant Sciences for 500 million dollars in cash and stock. Resonant Sciences is based in Ohio and makes radio frequency and sensor systems.

The company is now part of a dedicated defense business within Joby. Its projects include the development of turbine-electric and hydrogen-electric aircraft, as well as the autonomy technology stack.

Last year, Joby also signed an agreement with defense contractor L3Harris Technologies. Together they will explore a new class of aircraft: a gas-turbine hybrid vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that can fly autonomously.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Waymo's driverless robotaxis were involved in 68 percent fewer crashes and 81 percent fewer injury crashes than human drivers, an independent study from IIHS shows.

• Automatic emergency braking that recognizes pedestrians cuts pedestrian crashes by 27 percent and rear-end crashes by 50 percent.

• Cutting global road deaths in half would save 580,000 lives every year.

Independent study confirms Waymo's numbers

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, IIHS, is an American organization that researches road safety. In July, it published a study on Waymo's driverless robotaxis. The conclusion is that the cars crash less often than people.

The researchers compared Waymo's cars with human drivers in four cities: San Francisco, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Austin. Waymo's cars traveled about 50 million driverless miles during the study period. Humans in the same cities drove about 222 billion miles.

Per mile traveled, Waymo's cars were involved in 68 percent fewer crashes. In Phoenix, the rate was 76 percent lower, in Los Angeles 71 percent and in San Francisco 35 percent. In Austin, where the sample size was small, the rate was 4 percent higher. Waymo's cars had 85 percent fewer single-vehicle crashes. Crashes where someone was injured were 81 percent fewer.

The researchers cleaned up the data

To get a fair comparison, the researchers went through crash reports from Waymo, Cruise, Zoox and other companies between 2021 and 2024. They removed duplicates and incidents where the automation was not engaged, where the vehicle was not on a public road or where no real crash took place. They then counted only crashes that an ordinary person would report to the police.

This was necessary because self-driving companies must report even minor scrapes. Humans, on the other hand, report about half of all crashes and two thirds of injury crashes.

According to Eric Teoh, who led the study, the results are encouraging signs for driverless vehicles.

Waymo's own study shows an even larger difference

Waymo has now given 20 million paid rides over more than 220 million miles. That equals 250 lifetimes of driving. In March, an independent study from Waymo showed 92 percent fewer crashes with deaths or serious injuries compared with human drivers in similar city environments. Pedestrian injuries were 92 percent fewer. Crashes where the airbag deployed were 83 percent fewer. At intersections, among the most dangerous places in traffic, injury crashes were 96 percent fewer.

Driver assistance already saves lives

Regular cars also become safer from the technology behind self-driving. Automatic emergency braking that recognizes people in front of the car cuts pedestrian crashes by 27 percent. Automatic braking halves rear-end crashes and reduces injuries in such crashes by 56 percent. The system will be mandatory in all light vehicles in the U.S. by 2029. More than 90 percent of new models already comply.

Cars with automatic emergency braking alone have 13 percent fewer property-damage insurance claims. Cars with several assistance features, such as adaptive cruise control and lane-departure warnings, have up to 39 percent fewer claims.

Regulators open the door for robotaxis

On July 30, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NHTSA, granted Amazon-owned Zoox the first-ever exemption from certain safety standards. This allows Zoox to operate commercially with its robotaxis, which have no steering wheel or pedals. The agency determined that the vehicle provides the same level of safety as a regular vehicle.

NHTSA has also launched a partnership to develop the first U.S. standards for self-driving vehicles. The project runs for three years and has a budget of 5 million dollars.

Could save hundreds of thousands of lives

Every year, about 40,000 people die on the roads in the U.S., including more than 7,000 pedestrians. Worldwide, 1.16 million people die. Road crashes are the leading cause of death for children and young adults between the ages of 5 and 29. Cutting the number of deaths in half would save 580,000 lives every year. Doctors and researchers at Johns Hopkins argue that self-driving cars should be seen as a public health measure.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• In March, Delhi's subway became longer than New York's, at a total cost of roughly $10 billion, less than New York spent to build a 3.5-mile tunnel.

• The system is 33 percent solar-powered, captures brake energy in batteries, and 99.9 percent of its trains ran on time last year.

• The metro keeps an estimated 600,000 vehicles off Delhi's streets.

When the Delhi Metro opened in 2002, there were few examples of working public transit in countries at India's level of development. India's capital was already massive and sprawling, with heavy traffic congestion and air pollution.

Today, the Delhi Metro is a model for the world. In March, a new line was completed, and the system passed New York's subway in length. The total cost is roughly $10 billion. That is less than New York spent to build a single 3.5-mile tunnel, writes The New York Times.

Gerald Ollivier, the World Bank's lead transport specialist for India, says the Delhi Metro has shown that a complex urban rail project in a low- and middle-income country can be built and operated to very high standards. Anuj Dayal, chief of communications at the metro company, says the system is still young compared with other subways, but that in every other way it is in the big league.

Solar power and trains that run on time

The Delhi Metro is the world's first railway project to be awarded carbon credits by the United Nations. The system is 33 percent solar-powered. The train cars capture energy from braking and store it in batteries. Last year, 99.9 percent of the trains ran on time.

Built from scratch in one of the world's densest cities

At first, transportation experts were skeptical of rail-based mass transit in India. The country's first metro, in Kolkata, had struggled with costly delays and low ridership since it opened in 1984.

Delhi is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The metro had to snake through residential areas, markets, slums and some of India's most iconic and ancient monuments. In London, New York and Tokyo, subways grew alongside the city over a century or more. The Delhi Metro was instead built from scratch, in a city that was already fully built up and packed with people.

The leader who did not accept corruption

E. Sreedharan was managing director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), which is jointly owned by the Delhi government and India's federal government. He was called the "Metro Man of India." He had a reputation for zero tolerance for corruption and political interference. He built a culture of professionalism, punctuality and discipline at the company.

Instead of only hiring foreign consultants, he sent his deputies to study the world's best subway systems and bring the knowledge back home. He hired contractors with experience relocating infrastructure together with government agencies.

During construction, two bridge sections collapsed, in October 2008 and July 2009. Seven people died in total. Sreedharan took responsibility and sent his resignation letter to Sheila Dikshit, then chief minister of Delhi. She refused to accept it. By the time Sreedharan retired in 2011, the metro was widely seen as a success.

Street plays taught residents to ride the metro

For many people in Delhi, riding a subway was completely new. The DMRC hired drama troupes to put on street plays explaining how the system works. Commuters had to learn to use escalators and elevators, pass through automated turnstiles and pay a fare for each ride.

In the early years, many commuters took their tokens home. The DMRC then began offering souvenirs to reduce the losses. Then came paper tickets, preloaded smart cards and eventually digital fares.

Today, the stations have toilets, restaurants, police booths and kiosks selling clothes. Glow signs and color-coded stickers on the floors guide commuters to different lines and landmarks. The early work of helping passengers find their way led to record ridership. New lines have since kept ridership up.

The first car is reserved for women

The first car of every train is reserved for women. The coaches have security cameras, and marshals keep men out of the coaches reserved for women. Studies show the metro has made a big difference for working women, who rely on it being safe and predictable when they travel to work in and around the city.

Tripti Jain, a 23-year-old toy designer, says she finds it hard to imagine life as a woman in Delhi without the metro. It is convenient and air-conditioned, and she knows exactly when she will arrive. Janvi Jhamb, a 22-year-old student at the University of Delhi, calls the metro the most efficient and easiest way to travel.

600,000 fewer vehicles on the streets

According to an estimate by the International Union of Railways, an industry association based in Paris, the metro keeps 600,000 vehicles off Delhi's streets. Gerald Ollivier of the World Bank describes every full train as hundreds of ignition keys that were never turned that morning.

On two lines, the trains now run without drivers. In a spherical control room in New Delhi, dozens of staff operate the trains remotely. Siddharth Yadav, an operation control manager there, explains that they can switch the power lines on and off from the room, as easily as switching on a light at home.

Buses are next

The next part of Delhi's public transit to expand is the bus system. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi say the bus system needs to become more efficient and better integrated with the metro, so that it reaches residents in areas the metro does not serve. Deepty Jain, an assistant professor of transportation at the same university, says the metro has set a high bar of efficiency and professionalism for future public transit projects to clear.

Exporting the know-how

The DMRC is now involved in almost every metro project in India. The company is consulting on metro projects in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Jakarta, Indonesia. It is also bidding on projects in Bahrain and Vietnam, and on a 303-kilometer railway link between the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Tesla has begun operating its purpose-built robotaxi, the Cybercab, on the streets of Austin, Texas. The vehicle has no steering wheel, no pedals and no mirrors.

• Unlike competitors Waymo and Zoox, which combine cameras with radar and lidar, Tesla builds the entire system on cameras.

• The company has 45 Cybercabs registered with the Texas motor vehicle authority and a total of 256 robotaxis operating without safety drivers across six cities.

A car built without a driver's seat

On September 3, Tesla's new robotaxi rolled out in Austin. The Cybercab is a two-seat vehicle with gullwing-style doors and a gold-colored body. It has no traditional controls. There is no steering wheel, no pedals and no mirrors, and it uses eight cameras to find its way through traffic. Unlike competitors Waymo and Zoox, which combine cameras with radar and lidar, Tesla builds the entire system on cameras.

The vehicle was first shown in 2024. Tesla tested it in several cities for months before the launch.

Lighter than any other Tesla

According to documents filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Cybercab runs on a single front-mounted permanent magnet motor with 219 horsepower and front-wheel drive. The battery pack is 48 kilowatt-hours and operates at 326 volts. The curb weight is roughly 3,113 pounds, about 700 pounds lighter than the lightest Model 3 on sale today. That is roughly the same as a gasoline-powered compact car, even though the Cybercab carries a lithium-ion battery.

From modified Model Ys to a purpose-built taxi

Tesla has been running robotaxis in Texas and Florida for a year. The service started in Austin in June last year with modified Model Ys. In the beginning, safety drivers sat in the vehicles to take over if needed. The service has since expanded to five other cities in Texas and Florida, and the company now has more than 200 vehicles operating entirely without safety drivers.

New website and new rules

Alongside the launch, Tesla opened a new website for the robotaxi service. It sets out the rules for riding. Children under the age of 13 are currently not allowed to ride in a Cybercab. The company also published several videos showing the interior, crash test results and how the vehicle works for people with disabilities.

Tesla has also put up a form for anyone interested in future robotaxi opportunities, such as purchasing a fleet of Cybercabs or building mobility hubs and infrastructure for the service. Musk has previously said the two-seater should be available for as little as $30,000.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Electric car sales rose 4 percent in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same quarter last year, while total global car sales fell by around 5 percent in the first half of the year.

• Electric cars accounted for 24 percent of all car sales worldwide in the first half of the year and are expected to reach 29 percent for the full year 2026.

• In Australia, Brazil, India, South Korea and Vietnam, electric car sales have roughly doubled since the energy crisis began.

Rebound in the second quarter

In the second quarter of 2026, electric car sales rose 4 percent compared with the same period in 2025. Compared with the first quarter, the increase was 35 percent. In 50 countries, electric car sales during the quarter were the highest ever for a single quarter. The increase almost entirely offset the decline in the first three months of the year. As a result, electric car sales in the first half of the year were only slightly below the level of the first half of 2025.

At the same time, total global car sales fell by around 5 percent. The decline is mainly due to lower sales in China and the United States, the world's two largest car markets. The share of electric cars in all car sales rose to 24 percent, slightly higher than in the first half of 2025.

Doubling in several countries

In Australia, Brazil, India, South Korea and Vietnam, electric car sales have roughly doubled in the period March to June compared with the same months in 2025. All five are sizeable electric car markets.

The IEA expects global electric car sales to grow by around 10 percent in 2026 compared with 2025. The assessment is based on the second-quarter increase and on policy support for electric cars in Latin America, Southeast Asia and Europe. Electric cars are expected to account for 29 percent of all car sales worldwide this year.

In China, electric car sales are expected to end up at roughly the same level as in 2025. However, the share of electric cars in the Chinese market is expected to exceed 60 percent.

China's electric car exports more than doubled

Domestic car sales in China fell in the first half of the year. At the same time, the country's car exports rose 65 percent compared with the same period last year. Exports of electric cars grew even faster, by over 120 percent. The increase fully offset the decline in domestic electric car sales. The share of electric cars in China's car exports rose from around 35 percent in 2025 to over 45 percent in the first half of 2026.

Chinese carmakers have grown rapidly both at home and abroad. In emerging markets, they hold a particularly high share of electric car sales. China and other emerging economies are expected to account for 60 percent of global car demand over the coming decade.

New players take their place

Competition in the electric car market is tougher than in the market for cars with internal combustion engines. Carmakers that mainly sell combustion engine cars account for around 98 percent of sales of such cars, but only around 55 percent of global electric car sales.

The growth of electric cars is changing the car industry's supply chains. Value is shifting from traditional mechanical components to batteries, electronics and software. Chinese manufacturers benefit from integrated supply chains, battery expertise and production costs that are around 35 percent lower than in advanced economies. More and more carmakers are using joint ventures and strategic alliances to gain access to technology, battery know-how, manufacturing capacity and new markets.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Australia's transport emissions fell for the second consecutive year outside the pandemic, driven by growing EV sales and lower petrol consumption.

• The country's total greenhouse gas emissions dropped 2.1 percent in 2025 and are now 24.5 percent below 2005 levels.

• EVs have grown from less than four percent of new vehicle sales in 2022 to more than 20 percent in the first four months of 2026.

New figures from Australia's National Greenhouse Gas Inventory show that the country's transport emissions may have reached their peak. Transport emissions fell 0.6 percent in 2025, from 101.5 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent in 2024 to 100.8 million tonnes. It is the second consecutive annual decline, excluding the disruptions caused by the COVID pandemic.

Australia's Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water says the result could indicate that transport emissions are approaching, or may already have passed, their peak.

Petrol consumption fell three percent

The decline was driven largely by a three percent drop in petrol consumption over the year. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen points to the growing share of EVs as part of the explanation.

According to Bowen, EVs have grown from less than four percent of new light vehicle sales in 2022 to more than 20 percent in the first four months of this year. He highlights the country's New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which gives Australians more fuel-efficient vehicles to choose from.

The inventory covers emissions through December 2025. This means the sharp rise in EV sales in early 2026 is not yet reflected in the transport statistics. That increase coincided with high global oil prices, which accelerated interest in EVs and plug-in hybrids.

Total emissions fell 9.7 million tonnes

Australia's overall greenhouse gas emissions decreased 2.1 percent in 2025, to 458.9 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent. That equals a reduction of 9.7 million tonnes. Reductions were recorded across electricity generation, transport, stationary energy, fugitive emissions, agriculture and waste.

The country's emissions are now 24.5 percent below 2005 levels.

Record renewable electricity

The electricity sector remains Australia's largest source of emissions, but it also delivered some of the biggest reductions. Emissions from electricity generation fell 3.8 percent over the year, as renewable energy generation reached record levels. Renewables accounted for 43.2 percent of generation in the National Electricity Market.

Battery storage played an increasingly important role. Battery discharge in the electricity market almost tripled during 2025. This reduced gas-fired generation during evening peaks by around 30 percent.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Heart Aerospace's demonstration aircraft X1 flew for the first time, staying in the air for 27 minutes.

• The electricity for the flight cost about five dollars.

• The production version, the ES-30, is expected to cut operating costs by more than 40 percent compared with today's regional aircraft. The aircraft is in the same size class as a commercial regional airliner.

27 minutes in the air over the Champlain Valley

Early in the morning at Plattsburgh International Airport in upstate New York, an aircraft rolled out onto runway 35. What happened next had never happened before: a battery-powered aircraft in the same size class as a commercial regional airliner took off and flew.

The flight took place on Wednesday, August 12, 2026, and lasted 27 minutes. The aircraft, named X1, was flown by one pilot and reached 1,100 feet above the ground, roughly 335 meters. The powertrain, running entirely on batteries, delivered more than one megawatt of power. The test profile included taxiing, takeoff, climb, maneuvering and landing.

The flight was conducted under a special airworthiness certificate in the experimental category, issued by the US aviation authority, the FAA. The certificate came in July 2026 and gave permission to begin flight testing immediately. The test flights take place within a defined envelope: no more than 140 knots, no more than 2,000 feet above the ground and no more than 1.5 G in maneuvering load.

Plattsburgh is a regional commercial airport serving a community of 20,000 residents. That is exactly the kind of traffic Heart Aerospace is aiming for.

Warp News has followed Heart Aerospace since the company's early years and has written about it several times. The first time was in September 2020, when founders Anders Forslund and Klara Andreasson showed off their electric motor in a hangar at Säve airport outside Gothenburg and had a handful of employees. Warp News has since visited the hangar together with readers and reported on the company's steps from drawing board to flying machine.

Five dollars of electricity against a jet fuel price up 63 percent

The X1 used about $5 worth of electricity on its first flight. The figure says something about why Heart Aerospace is building electric aircraft at all.

Over the same period, the price of jet fuel rose sharply. In the week ending August 7, the average price was $3.50 per gallon, or about $0.92 per liter. That is an increase of 63 percent compared with a year earlier. Electric propulsion decouples airlines' operating costs from the swings in the global oil markets.

"With the first flight of X1, Heart Aerospace has demonstrated electric flight at the size of a commercial airliner," says Anders Forslund, founder and CEO. He describes the company's goal as abundant flight: more, cheaper and cleaner flights to and from airports closer to where people live.

What the X1 was meant to prove

The X1 is not intended to be sold. It is a full-scale demonstrator representing the production aircraft, the ES-30, and it was built to verify technology, aerodynamics, flight performance and the company's own ability to carry out an aircraft program.

Heart lists the steps the program has gone through. The company has designed an airframe from the ground up around electric propulsion, verified the new geometry through simulation and physical testing, developed its own components, and integrated electric motors, batteries, power electronics, control systems and avionics into a flying aircraft. The airframe has been load-tested to its limits and the powertrain has been tested under flight-like conditions.

Added to this is a flight test organization with staff, procedures and analytical capability, along with an established working relationship with the FAA on airworthiness.

"Through the X1 program, Heart has built the capability to design, build, test, operate and continuously improve an all-new electric airliner," says chief technology officer Ben Stabler. That capability is now being carried over to the ES-30.

The size of the aircraft

The X1 measures 32.3 meters between the wingtips, 23.2 meters from nose to tail and 7.3 meters in height. Its takeoff weight exceeds 11,340 kilograms. That makes the X1 the largest battery-electric aircraft ever to have flown.

Propulsion comes from four electric motors mounted on the wings. The aircraft has a T-tail. At the aircraft's unveiling, a cabin mock-up for 30 passengers and a cockpit mock-up were installed on board.

ES-30: 30 seats, 200 kilometers on electricity and 800 kilometers on hybrid power

The ES-30 is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft with 30 seats and hybrid-electric propulsion. It is being developed for certification under the FAA's Part 25 rules, which apply to larger airliners.

According to the planned specifications, the ES-30 will fly 200 kilometers fully on battery and 800 kilometers on hybrid power, with 25 kilograms of baggage per passenger and a 30-minute charging time. The hybrid system is based on two turbogenerators that, according to Heart, will run on sustainable aviation fuel. They provide an energy reserve and supplement battery power on longer legs. These are design targets, not flight-verified performance.

Heart expects the ES-30 to deliver more than 40 percent lower operating costs per aircraft than older regional airliners. The company points to four reasons: lower energy costs, less maintenance thanks to simpler electric propulsion and electrified systems, higher availability through an integrated electronics and software architecture, and low exposure to the emissions-related taxes and fees that are growing in aviation markets around the world.

The range is suited to short routes. In North and South America there are 5,000 airports and a network dominated by routes under 500 miles, or about 800 kilometers. In Europe, the same range covers large parts of the continent.

From a 1:5 scale model to full-scale flight

The road here has come in clear steps. Heart Aerospace started in 2018 with two people in hangars at Säve airport outside Gothenburg.

The first aircraft was called the ES-19 and was a planned 19-seat all-electric regional airliner with a stated range of up to 400 kilometers. On December 17, 2021, the company flew an unmanned 1:5 scale model of the ES-19 at Säve. The model had a 4.6-meter wingspan, flew for four and a half minutes and reached a top speed of 150 kilometers per hour. In parallel, a full-scale powertrain demonstrator had been ground-tested for more than a year.

In September 2022, Heart set the ES-19 aside and instead presented the 30-seat ES-30 with hybrid propulsion. This was a new product configuration rather than a scaling up of a finished aircraft. Earlier orders from United and Mesa were, according to the company, confirmed for the new model.

From early on, the strategy was about avoiding unnecessary risk. The company chose not to design an entirely new aircraft in every respect, but to use proven parts and adapt what is required when batteries and electric motors replace jet fuel and piston engines. "The principles of aircraft design are low speed, low altitude, conventional design to be safe, low risk, boring and easier to certify," said Philip Keenan, then head of airworthiness and certification, during a visit to the hangar in 2022.

The airlines that have put money in

The ES-30 has customer commitments from United Airlines, Air Canada and JSX. Heart says the combined customer commitments amount to $9.4 billion.

"The first flight of X1 is a major technical achievement for Heart Aerospace, a company United has been proud to support," says Michael Leskinen, chief financial officer at United Airlines. He points out that electric airliners can deliver a better travel experience for passengers while also strengthening the airline's business.

John Di Bert, deputy group chief executive and chief financial officer at Air Canada, describes the X1's first flight as an important milestone. "Our investment in Heart Aerospace and the ES-30 reflects Air Canada's commitment to supporting innovative technology that has the potential to change aviation," he says.

The next step is being built in Los Angeles

Heart Aerospace is headquartered in Los Angeles. There, the company is now developing the first pre-production example of the ES-30 in its pilot factory.

Flight testing of the ES-30 is planned to begin in 2028. Type certification and entry into service are set for 2031.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Five years ago, almost no one in Latin America bought an electric car.

• In Colombia, electric cars now account for 10 percent of new car sales.

• In Mexico, the share rose from 2 to 7 percent in a single year.

From almost zero

Latin America was long a region where electric cars barely showed up in the statistics. That has changed in five years. Electric cars now make up a meaningful and fast-growing share of new car sales in several of the region's largest car markets.

The figures show the share of new passenger cars sold that are electric. That share includes both fully battery-electric cars and plug-in hybrids.

Colombia has come the furthest. The country started from nearly zero and is now at 10 percent. That is the same level as the United States, which is used as a comparison in the statistics.

In other countries in the region, the shift started later. It is moving fast there too. Mexico is a clear example. The share of electric cars there rose from 2 to 7 percent between 2024 and 2025, in a single year.

Tax breaks contribute

A large part of the explanation is policy. Many Latin American countries offer tax breaks and other incentives to people who buy an electric car. Colombia is one of them.

Electric cars are getting cheaper

The other part of the explanation is price. In 2025, the sales-weighted average purchase price of electric cars declined across almost all segments in the three markets that the International Energy Agency, IEA, covers in particular: China, Germany and the United States.

In all three markets, two factors contributed to the lower prices. Battery cell prices have come down. Manufacturers have also changed their pricing strategies.

New model entries in these markets have affected the average price of battery electric vehicles differently in the different countries.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Waymo has opened its driverless taxi service in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando, bringing the company's total to ten metro areas in the US.

• Data from over 127 million miles driven shows that Waymo's driverless cars have ten times fewer serious crashes and twelve times fewer crashes with pedestrians compared to human drivers.

• The company has launched its sixth-generation sensor technology with fewer cameras but higher resolution, lower cost, and the ability to drive in extreme winter weather.

Four cities open simultaneously

For the first time, Waymo has opened its driverless taxi service in multiple cities at the same time. On February 24, the first public passengers in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando gained access to the service. Selected users among the tens of thousands who downloaded the Waymo app received invitations to book their first rides. More users are being invited on a rolling basis, and the service is set to open to everyone later in 2026.

Waymo is the only company operating a commercial driverless taxi service at scale in multiple American cities. With the four new cities, the company now operates in ten metro areas. According to Tekedra Mawakana, one of Waymo's co-CEOs, the company is on track to provide over one million rides per week by the end of the year. The goal is to operate in more than 20 cities.

Sixth-generation driver system

On February 12, Waymo presented its sixth-generation sensor technology, which the company calls the Waymo Driver. The system is built on experience from nearly 200 million fully autonomous miles driven in more than ten major cities.

At the core of the new system is a 17-megapixel camera that captures images with significantly higher resolution than standard automotive cameras. Thanks to the higher resolution, fewer than half as many cameras are needed compared to the fifth-generation system, which reduces cost. The cameras have a dynamic range that allows the system to discern details in deep shadows while handling glare from high beams or emergency vehicle lights.

The system combines cameras with lidar and radar. Lidar uses laser beams to create a three-dimensional image of the surroundings and works independently of lighting conditions. Waymo has benefited from lidar costs dropping significantly over the past five years, partly because the technology is increasingly being built into regular consumer vehicles. Short-range lidar provides centimeter-level precision when navigating near pedestrians, opening car doors, and other urban situations.

The radar creates dense maps that track distance, velocity, and size of objects in real time across all lighting and weather conditions. The next-generation radar has improved performance in rain and snow. The system also has external microphones that can detect and localize sirens from emergency vehicles before they are visible.

Built for expansion in different climates

The sixth-generation system is designed to function in extreme winter weather, bright sun, and sudden downpours. This enables Waymo to expand to cities with more varied climate conditions. The cameras have integrated cleaning systems that keep the lenses clear of raindrops, road grime, and ice. When a camera's view is still limited, lidar and radar take over.

More processing power has been moved to Waymo's custom silicon chips instead of being spread across multiple hardware components. This delivers better performance with greater efficiency.

Simulation model for rare scenarios

Waymo also presented its new simulation model, the Waymo World Model, which is built on Google DeepMind's Genie 3. The model generates photorealistic three-dimensional environments where Waymo's driver system can train on rare and dangerous situations that are nearly impossible to capture in reality, such as encountering a vehicle on the wrong side of the road, driving through floods, or handling a tornado.

The model generates both camera and lidar data and can be controlled with simple text commands. Engineers can change weather, time of day, traffic situations, and road layouts. The model can also convert regular dashcam videos into complete simulations with multiple sensor types.

Ten times fewer serious crashes

Data from over 127 million miles driven shows that Waymo's system has ten times fewer serious crashes compared to human drivers. Crashes with pedestrians are twelve times fewer. Waymo is collaborating with local organizations in the new cities, including Downtown Dallas Inc., Bike Houston, Vibrant Works, and Lighthouse Central Florida.

Waymo's autonomous vehicle factory in Phoenix is preparing to produce tens of thousands of units per year. The system is designed to be adaptable to different vehicle platforms, including Waymo's own Ojai and the Hyundai IONIQ 5.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Aurora has expanded its driverless network from three to ten routes and now operates autonomously between cities such as Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, and Phoenix.

• The Fort Worth–Phoenix route of approximately 1,000 miles is the first driverless freight route to exceed mandated driving time limits, nearly halving transit times.

• The company plans to have over 200 driverless trucks in operation by the end of 2026, and all commercial capacity is already fully booked through the third quarter of 2026.

Four software updates since launch

Aurora Innovation has announced that the company is tripling its driverless truck network with the launch of its latest software update. The network now encompasses ten routes in the southern United States, a region home to over half of the country's population.

Aurora deployed its first driverless trucks in April 2025. Since then, the company has carried out four software updates. The first validated driverless operations between Dallas and Houston, the second enabled nighttime driving, the third added El Paso, and the fourth now opens up expansion across the entire southern United States, the so-called Sun Belt.

Before the latest update was approved, Aurora conducted over four million tests in its validation process.

Route exceeding driving time limits

One of the most significant developments is that Aurora now operates driverless on the route between Fort Worth and Phoenix, a distance of approximately 1,000 miles. This makes Aurora the first company to autonomously haul freight on a route that exceeds mandated Hours of Service regulations.

Without mandatory rest breaks, the driverless truck can nearly halve transit times compared to a traditional single-driver fleet. Freight company Hirschbach is an early customer on the route, using it for coast-to-coast goods transportation.

The driverless network now covers freight between Dallas and Houston, Fort Worth and El Paso, El Paso and Phoenix, Fort Worth and Phoenix, and Dallas and Laredo.

Faster mapping of new routes

Aurora uses AI-based technology to build maps for new routes faster than before. After a single manual drive, cloud-based algorithms can generate the components needed to create new maps with minimal human involvement. This enables the company to add new routes and customer delivery points more quickly.

Aurora has already begun supervised autonomous deliveries to several customer facilities. Hirschbach Motor Lines operates between Dallas and Laredo for Driscoll's, the world's largest berry company. Detmar Logistics operates between Midland and Capital Sand's mining site in Monahans, Texas.

Can now drive in adverse weather

The driverless software can now navigate highways and surface streets through rain, fog, and heavy wind. During 2025, adverse weather constrained Aurora's driverless operations in Texas roughly 40 percent of the time. The new validation means a major increase in potential uptime for customers' autonomous vehicles.

250,000 driverless miles with no accidents

As of January 2026, Aurora had driven 250,000 driverless miles and maintained a perfect safety record with zero collisions attributed to the autonomous system. Demand for the company's services is increasing and all commercial truck capacity is fully booked through the third quarter of 2026.

In the second quarter of 2026, Aurora plans to launch its next-generation hardware on the International LT Series truck platform, without a safety observer in the cabin. The company expects to have over 200 driverless trucks in operation by the end of the year.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• The Gendema Bridge replaces a 50-year-old hand-pulled ferry across the Sewa River and connects four chiefdoms in Sierra Leone.

• Farmers who previously lost their harvests due to delays and spoilage can now reach markets in five minutes by car.

• The bridge is part of a larger effort where a total of eight bridges are being built to connect farmers with markets across the country.

A river that held back development

For decades, the Sewa River was an obstacle for the communities of Simbaru, Wando, Gorama Mende and Konike Sanda in Sierra Leone. The only way across was a hand-pulled ferry that was over 50 years old. The ferry was slow and unreliable and often unusable during the rainy season. The wait could be half a day. This meant that entire communities were cut off from markets and schools. Harvests were destroyed and economic growth was stunted.

In November 2025, President Julius Maada Bio commissioned the new Gendema Bridge. A crossing that was previously risky and time-consuming became a safe five-minute drive. The bridge connects the region year-round.

Immediate difference for farmers and families

The effects were felt immediately. Farmers now have predictable access to roads and their produce reaches markets quickly. Transport costs have dropped, increasing farmers' incomes. Travel is safer for schoolchildren and traders.

Aminata Adamu, a resident of Gendema, says that residents previously had to watch their produce rot and that people even drowned trying to cross the river. Youth leader Thomas Moriba says that children can now get to school safely and that harvests are no longer destroyed on the riverbanks.

A new trade route

The bridge strengthens an important route between Sierra Leone's northern and southeastern parts. It also opens new trade opportunities with neighboring Liberia. Farmers gain access to larger markets and traders get a more reliable supply chain.

The infrastructure also affects other parts of society. Nurses, teachers and essential supplies can now be transported more safely. Reliable connectivity makes it more attractive for agribusinesses to invest in the area.

Part of a larger effort

The Gendema Bridge is part of Sierra Leone's national Feed Salone strategy and is the second major bridge commissioned in 2025. Bridge construction is led through two projects: the Smallholders Commercialization and Agribusiness Development Project (SCADeP) and the Sierra Leone Connectivity and Agricultural Market Infrastructure Project (CAMIP).

Under SCADeP, the Mattru–Senehun Bridge and the Gendema Bridge have been completed. Two more bridges, Manowa and Tomparie, are expected to be finished by the end of January 2026. Through CAMIP, four additional bridges are under construction: Kabba, Komrabai, Moselolo and Sumbuya. In total, eight bridges are being built to connect farmers with markets across the country and the region.

The SCADeP project, led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, has also built feeder roads, provided grants to agribusinesses and producer organizations, and expanded access to markets and processing capacity.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Waymo has secured $16 billion in an investment round valuing the company at $126 billion.

• The company's self-driving cars have reduced serious crashes by 90 percent compared to human drivers.

• In 2025, Waymo tripled its rides to 15 million and plans to expand to over 20 new cities in 2026.

Record investment in self-driving technology

The American company Waymo has secured an investment round of $16 billion. It is one of the largest investments ever in self-driving vehicles. The round values the company at $126 billion.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, continues as the majority owner. The capital comes from a number of major technology and venture capital investors.

90 percent fewer serious crashes

Waymo's self-driving cars have now driven 127 million miles fully autonomously. That is equivalent to traveling to the moon and back over 260 times. During these drives, the company has achieved a 90 percent reduction in serious crashes compared to human drivers.

The explanation is that self-driving technology is not affected by the most common causes of traffic accidents. Distraction, intoxication, and fatigue do not exist for an autonomous system.

Tripled the number of rides in 2025

In 2025, Waymo tripled its annual volume to 15 million rides. In total, the company has now completed over 20 million rides since launch. Every week, Waymo provides more than 400,000 rides across six major American metropolitan areas.

The company recently launched the service in Miami. Now Waymo plans to start operations in over 20 new cities in 2026. Tokyo and London are among the planned markets.

Capital to finance global expansion

The new capital will be used to expand both the vehicle fleet and the workforce. The focus is on bringing self-driving cars to more cities in the US and internationally.

Saurabh Gupta, co-founder of the investment firm DST Global, says the technology is already saving lives. He points out that self-driving cars will increase productivity and accessibility for millions of people while improving road safety globally.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Zipline has completed over 2 million commercial deliveries with autonomous drones and flown more than 125 million miles without serious injuries.

• Zipline started in 2016 by delivering blood and medical products in Rwanda.

• The company has secured $600 million in funding and is now valued at $7.6 billion.

From blood deliveries in Rwanda to global expansion

Zipline started in 2016 by delivering blood and medical products in Rwanda. Since then, the company has expanded to food, retail, agricultural products, and animal health products. Today, Zipline operates in eight countries across four continents.

The company has two platforms – one for long-range deliveries and one for precise home deliveries. Zipline has delivered to thousands of homes, hospitals, and businesses in the US, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Kenya, and Japan.

Deliveries in under 10 minutes

Zipline's delivery system demonstrates strong operational efficiency. The median flight time is 3 minutes. Customers in Houston and Phoenix can receive their orders in as little as 10 minutes via the Zipline app.

Deliveries in the US have increased by approximately 15 percent week over week for the past seven months. Zipline's first location in Dallas needed 10 weeks to reach 100 deliveries per day. Newer locations reach the same volume in just 2 days.

The company exceeded its daily delivery target for the third quarter by approximately 30 percent. The fourth quarter target was reached six weeks early.

Safety record without serious injuries

Zipline's zero-emission aircraft have flown more than 125 million autonomous commercial miles and delivered over 20 million items. During this time, no serious injuries have been reported.

By comparison, approximately 120 million miles of driving on American roads typically results in approximately 600 crashes, about 100 injuries, and at least one fatality, according to data from the US traffic safety authority NHTSA.

Expansion to more states

The new funding will accelerate expansion to at least four additional states in 2026. Houston and Phoenix are the first new markets. Zipline currently delivers food, retail goods, and healthcare products directly to customers' homes. Tens of thousands of products are available through the company's delivery platform.

Zipline CEO Keller Cliffton says that autonomous logistics has been developing for over a decade. According to him, the past year has made it clear that when deliveries are faster, cleaner, safer, and cheaper, demand grows exponentially.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Waymo becomes the first robotaxi company in the US to offer driverless rides on highways, available around the clock in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles.

• The service uses the same software and sensors as for city driving, supplemented with testing on closed courses and simulations for highway conditions.

• The expansion also includes San Jose with access to San Jose International Airport, where Waymo charges the same fee as other taxi companies.

First commercial highway service without drivers

Waymo launches commercial robotaxi rides on highways as the first company in the US. Starting Wednesday, certain users can book rides that include highway sections in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles. The service is available around the clock for users who have chosen to test new features.

The company, owned by Alphabet Inc., plans to gradually make the service available to more users. Waymo has not shared a timeline for when highway driving will be offered in other markets where the company is active.

Same technology as for city driving

Waymo uses the same software platform and sensor system for highway driving as for city driving. To adapt the systems to highway conditions, the company has used a combination of testing on closed courses and simulations. The systems have been trained to handle both rare and inevitable driving conditions.

The cars keep pace with traffic and drive up to the speed limit on highways. If the vehicle needs to stop, it exits the highway and finds a safe spot on a nearby road.

Expansion to San Jose and airport

Waymo expands its coverage area in the Bay Area to also include San Jose. The new area includes San Jose International Airport.

The company is also actively working with San Francisco International Airport, where it currently has permission for testing operations.

Status of competitors

Waymo's American competitors are also testing highway driving and in some cases charging customers, but have so far had a human in the car. Tesla recently launched its self-driving taxi service in Austin, where certain highway rides are offered with a safety monitor in the driver's seat. The company is also testing a purpose-built self-driving "Cybercab" that according to Elon Musk will begin production in April.

Outside the US, Chinese robotaxi company WeRide offers certain rides on highways in Abu Dhabi, also with safety drivers.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

• Battery-electric cars increased their market share to 15.8 percent during the first eight months of 2025, compared to 12.6 percent in the same period the previous year.

• Sales of petrol and diesel cars fell by 19.7 and 25.7 percent respectively during January to August 2025.

• Chinese car manufacturer BYD increased its sales by 244 percent compared to the previous year.

Electric cars and hybrids grow

Sales of battery-electric vehicles in the EU increased by 24.8 percent during the first eight months of 2025 compared to the same period the year before. This is shown by figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers' Association (ACEA), according to EuroNews.

Overall, marginally fewer new cars were registered in the EU during the period, with a decrease of 0.1 percent. In August, however, registrations increased by 5.3 percent.

Hybrid cars remain the most popular category among buyers. Sales of hybrid cars rose by 16.4 percent between January and August 2025.

Petrol and diesel lose ground

Sales of new petrol cars decreased by 19.7 percent during the first eight months of 2025. Diesel cars lost even more, with a decline of 25.7 percent during the same period.

Germany leads electric car sales

Among the EU's four largest economies, Germany increased its sales of electric cars by 39.2 percent during January to August. Italy saw an increase of 28.9 percent. In Spain, sales of electric cars almost doubled.

France registered a small decrease of 2 percent for the period. But in August alone, French electric car sales increased by 29.3 percent.

Volkswagen the largest brand

Volkswagen retained its position as the largest car manufacturer in the EU market with 27.5 percent of the market during the first eight months of 2025. Total sales for the group increased by 4.1 percent compared to the previous year.

Skoda and Cupra were the brands within the Volkswagen Group that grew the most, with 10 and 39.1 percent respectively. Audi, Porsche and Seat, however, decreased their sales figures.

Renault Group increased its sales by 5.8 percent. All the group's brands - Renault, Dacia and Alpine - contributed to the increase.

Chinese manufacturers grow rapidly

Tesla continued to lose market share. The company's sales fell by over 42 percent, which reduced its market share from 2.1 percent to 1.2 percent.

At the same time, Chinese competitors continued to expand their presence in the European market. BYD sold 244 percent more cars than the previous year. SEIC Motors increased its sales by 33.1 percent.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

At the first official meeting of the Swedish government’s AI Commission, Martin Lundstedt couldn’t join the morning study visit. He had a good reason for his absence. Lundstedt was busy presenting Volvo’s full-year results for 2023 — along with the largest dividend in Swedish history. Volvo, where Lundstedt is CEO, performed so well that it paid out 37 billion SEK ($4 billion) to its shareholders.

But after lunch, he showed up. We were both members of the commission, and when he sat down next to me, I was tempted to ask a sports-style question: How does it feel?

I didn’t. Instead, we dove straight into a discussion about AI. For a major company like Volvo, with over a hundred thousand employees, AI has countless implications — but roughly speaking, it affects them in two ways: First, generative AI tools like ChatGPT and Copilot become part of employees’ daily work. Second, artificial intelligence is being built into the vehicles themselves.

There are many aspects that fascinate me. When a new technology like generative AI emerges, how do you implement it across a large organization? And the classic dilemma: when new technology ultimately undermines your current business model, how do you lead the company toward a new one?

There wasn’t time to explore all of this during the AI Commission meetings, so while writing my book The Fifth Acceleration, I interviewed Martin Lundstedt. I also visited Volvo Autonomous Solutions in Gothenburg and spoke with Raquel Urtasun, founder of one of Volvo’s partners, Waabi. They use generative AI to create a digital testing environment for self-driving vehicles.

Some of these insights are included in the book, but a more detailed account can be found in two articles here at Warp News. The first covers my visit to Volvo Autonomous Solutions, and this one shares my conversation with Martin Lundstedt.

Worked his ass off

Martin Lundstedt has the kind of personality that immediately puts you at ease — despite the fact that he runs Sweden’s biggest company. That’s not to say he’s soft. Working your way up from a trainee position at Scania to CEO — first at Scania, and later at Volvo — takes serious grit.

I begin by asking him about his driving force.

He developed an interest in business early in life.

“I grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Both my paternal and maternal grandparents ran their own businesses,” he says.

He got a crash course in business through a bankruptcy. After high school, he worked at a small company that happened to go bankrupt. It had about fifty employees, but only a handful in the office — the rest worked out in the field. The bankruptcy trustee had several other cases to handle, so the responsibility to keep the firm running fell to Martin Lundstedt.

“I learned more during those six or seven months than I did in several years at Chalmers. A lot about doing business and understanding what really matters.”

Somewhere around that time, he fell in love with business itself — but after earning his master’s degree in engineering at Chalmers, he went into heavy industry. It was 1992, a time of economic crisis in Sweden, but he managed to land a trainee position at the truck manufacturer Scania.

Since then, he has, in his own words, “worked his ass off.” But he also worked broadly, taking on many different roles. He didn’t stick to one track but led production in France, sales in Brazil, and worked with engine development. That breadth was one of the main reasons Volvo wanted him as CEO, according to then-chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.

After just twenty years, he reached the top and became CEO of Scania. Three years later, he was lured over to rival Volvo. According to Dagens industri, roughly one hundred billion dollars in shareholder value has been created during his tenure.

His interests go beyond business. Transport and logistics, he says, shape entire societies.

“We know that advanced logistics lead to faster growth, which increases prosperity, but it also has to become more sustainable. That makes you feel like part of a sector that is part of something much bigger,” he says.

When he became CEO of Volvo, it was a company with low profitability — far below Scania, for example. It has been a transformation journey ever since, and such a journey never really ends, especially not when something as transformative as AI enters the picture.

Lundstedt explains that in Volvo’s work with AI and digitalization, change management isn’t about chasing new technology for its own sake, but about creating structure and accountability. Just as Volvo has always had a clear map for its products — with platforms, components, and how everything fits together — it has now built a corresponding structure for the digital side. They call it a “stack”: essentially an overview of the layers of systems, data, and tools that must work together. It means that data is collected in one place, quality-assured, and made available for analysis and AI, allowing management to understand and steer development much as they do with trucks and excavators.

“We’ve spent a lot of time making our digital stack a mirror of our product stack, so that we speak the same language — how we need to manage, develop, recruit talent, and understand the components required to meet our commitments,” Lundstedt says.

Ten years ago, when Volvo was struggling, the need for change was obvious. Now, with high profitability and debt turned into a large cash reserve, it might be tempting to stay the course. But instead, Volvo is moving toward an entirely new business model, as I described last week:

Put simply, Volvo today sells vehicles — but in the future, Volvo will sell a transport service made up of autonomous vehicles.

As someone who once failed as CEO of a company with just three employees, I can’t help but marvel at how one leads more than 100,000 people — especially through such a massive transformation.

It’s a balancing act between decentralization and shared direction.

“Volvo is a mosaic of small companies,” says Lundstedt. “When you put the mosaic together, you see the Volvo brand. But when you zoom in, you see all the small companies.”

That gives each team a sense of ownership over its part of the whole, even within such a large organization.

That sounds easy in theory, but of course it’s much harder in practice.

“In school we learned that the more volume you have, the lower the unit cost. And that’s true — but when things get too big, other problems arise. Bureaucracy, bullshit, steering committees and decisions being made at the wrong level. So the key is to balance the two and be very disciplined about it.”

Some things need to be shared across the company, while others can differ depending on where in the organization you are. The values, for example, must be the same.

“You can’t have one code of conduct in Romania and another in the U.S.,” says Lundstedt.

A key role for the CEO, then, is to maintain a bird’s-eye view — to distinguish what’s important from what’s not.

“Sometimes large organizations can become exactly wrong rather than approximately right.”

In other words, they can become obsessively precise about details that don’t matter — and miss what truly does.

That mindset, I think, also relates to the decision to gradually shift Volvo’s business model. If you get caught up in the details and focus too closely on the development of self-driving vehicles, it looks like a roller coaster of big hopes and crushed expectations — swinging from believing a breakthrough was only a few years away to the opposite.

Captured perfectly by this magazine cover from 2022.

But if you zoom out and free yourself from the details, you see steady progress.

Volvo has also identified a path forward that’s less complex than passenger cars: hub-to-hub transport, mostly on highways.

“Compared to other use cases, it’s less complex — even though it happens on highways and in public traffic. These are still relatively controlled environments, with defined sending and receiving areas before the trailer is connected,” says Lundstedt.

And then, regulations — again

There is, however, one major obstacle to the autonomous future: regulation.

Volvo’s transition from vehicle manufacturer to transport-as-a-service provider is starting in the U.S. Not solely because of regulations, but partly. Within the EU, the regulatory landscape is much more tangled, which is why there’s far less development and testing of autonomous vehicles here.

Lundstedt says he spends quite a bit of time talking with people in Brussels about this. The technology being developed already makes traffic safer and vehicles greener — but if regulations prevent it from being fully used, it doesn’t matter.

He prefers horizontal regulations — those that apply across many sectors — over vertical regulations, which target specific industries such as transport. Horizontal rules make it easier to build a broad ecosystem where many actors, from major corporations to startups, can collaborate under a shared framework. Vertical, sector-specific rules risk colliding with each other and creating contradictions.

The regulation mirage

I’ve often argued, here and elsewhere, against the exaggerated belief in pre-emptive regulation of new technology. Regulating in advance mostly acts as a brake on innovation.

With self-driving vehicles, this becomes obvious. There is now plenty of data showing that autonomous vehicles are already safer and cause far fewer accidents. The purpose of the EU’s regulations is to make citizens safer through “responsible” development. But in practice, it slows progress — and the safer vehicles operate in other countries, outside the EU. The result is that EU citizens are left with less safe roads for longer.

Regulations certainly have a place in society, and many make our lives safer or protect us from corporate abuse. But regulating before new technology has matured usually achieves the opposite.

The self-driving future is getting nearer

I’ve followed the development of autonomous vehicles quite closely for more than a decade. In 2016, I hosted a seminar in the Swedish Parliament together with Volvo Cars (a separate company from AB Volvo) to discuss self-driving cars.

Back then, there were many players and a great deal of optimism. In the early 2020s, the pendulum swung the other way — some major players, like General Motors, shut down their programs.

The technology isn’t there yet; it’s not good enough to transform the world. But progress hasn’t stopped — or even slowed. If you look past the headlines, you’ll see that we’re much closer now than we were ten years ago. The pessimism comes from unmet expectations, not from stagnation.

My visits to Volvo Autonomous Solutions and my conversations with Martin Lundstedt haven’t changed my view — they’ve strengthened it. We are approaching a dramatic shift in transport and logistics: a world where all vehicles drive themselves and are powered by electricity. It won’t happen overnight — it will take decades — but the direction is clear.

Mathias Sundin
Angry Optimist

• European car manufacturers sold 38 percent more electric cars during the first seven months of the year.

• BMW is expected to be 13 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer below the emission limit between 2025 and 2027.

• Stellantis and Renault are expected to exceed requirements by 9 and 2 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer respectively.

Several manufacturers meet targets with margin

A new report from Transport & Environment shows that most major European car manufacturers are on track to meet EU emission targets for the period 2025–2027. Electric vehicle sales have increased significantly during the year.

BMW is best positioned among European manufacturers. The company is expected to be 13 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer below the permitted average emissions during the period 2025–2027. Stellantis is 9 grams below the limit and Renault 2 grams below. Volkswagen will meet the requirements exactly with no margin.

Mercedes-Benz is the only European car manufacturer that does not reach the targets on its own. The company is 10 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer above the permitted level and must purchase emission credits from Volvo Cars and Polestar to meet the requirements.

Favorable market conditions

Several factors point to continued growth for electric cars. Battery costs are expected to decrease by 27 percent between 2022 and the end of 2025. By 2027, costs are expected to fall another 28 percent compared to 2025 levels, according to Transport & Environment forecasts.

Charging infrastructure has been deployed on 77 percent of the EU core highway network. All member states have already reached or surpassed the number of public charging points required by the EU's 2025 target.

Electric car market growing globally

Several major markets outside Europe show high growth for electric cars. In India, Mexico, Indonesia and Thailand, the electric vehicle share is 5, 5, 13 and 24 percent respectively. In China, the world's largest car market, the share of battery electric vehicles is expected to exceed 30 percent by the end of 2025.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism

What do you think killed the most people last year – war or traffic?

According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, about 160,000 people died in wars in 2024. A horrific number, but low compared to the number of people killed in traffic – 1.19 million, according to WHO.

So 7.5 times more people die in traffic than in wars. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29, and the twelfth leading cause of death for people of all ages, ahead of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.

The total number has remained fairly steady around 1.2 million deaths per year during the 2000s, but at the same time the number of cars and people has increased. So per person, fatalities have decreased.

Safer cars and roads are the main reason for this decline, but one must still conclude that we humans are not particularly well suited to drive around in one-ton metal boxes.

Our only chance?

The greatest – and only? – chance we have to dramatically reduce this is if cars start driving themselves.

A computer never gets distracted or angry. It is never drunk, tired, texting a friend, or scrolling through social media. Instead, it has near-perfect awareness around the car, reacts instantly, and can evaluate thousands of possible actions within milliseconds

That’s in theory. What does it look like in practice? For years, we have seen figures showing that self-driving cars are safer, but that data has often suffered from the problem that it wasn’t really a fair comparison. Self-driving cars have operated under controlled conditions, mostly in cities and in good road and weather conditions. If you compare those favorable conditions to the average of all other traffic, roads, and weather, the self-driving cars get a built-in statistical advantage.

That’s why a new study on Waymo’s self-driving cars was so interesting. In it, they tried to make an apples-to-apples comparison between self-driving and human-driven cars.

The researchers adjusted the statistics for human drivers so that they match exactly the places where Waymo operates. In this way, safety is compared in the same types of vehicles, on the same types of roads, and in the same areas. This means that the differences in results are due to the actual driving and not because Waymo and humans operate in different environments.

The result is dramatically safer driving:

• Accidents with any injury: –79%

• Accidents with airbag deployment: –81%

• Accidents with serious injury or death: –85%

For particularly risky situations, the reductions are even clearer:

• Intersection accidents: –96%

• Single-vehicle accidents: –93%

• Accidents with pedestrians: –92%

• Accidents with cyclists: –82%

• Accidents with motorcyclists: –82%

• Side collisions between vehicles: –74%

No accident category showed an increase compared to human driving.

Weather conditions are missing, however, since these cannot be extracted from the statistics. Bad weather such as rain and snow increases risk frequency. It is unclear if and how this would affect the data, but it is worth keeping in mind.

Don’t see the world through headlines

Last Friday I listened to Sweden's former finance minister, Anders Borg. He was supposed to talk about the world economy, and I just assumed he would be pessimistic. I was so wrong.

“The problem is,” he said, “that you read the newspapers.” That gives the impression that the world economy, like so much else, is heading in the wrong direction.

That’s exactly the message I usually stress, and something I’ve repeated many times in these texts. But this time I had fallen into the trap myself.

The antidote to being misled by negative headlines is to understand the trends behind them. To know the numbers, the technology, or the developments. I don’t follow the world economy in that way, but through headlines and news. So I became a pessimist. Anders Borg showed, with a cascade of figures from around the world, that it wasn’t nearly as bleak as I had thought.

Self-driving cars have started rolling

As soon as a self-driving car crashes, it becomes news – and is then over-interpreted. This was how Bloomberg framed it this summer:

If you judge the safety of self-driving cars through headlines, you will end up pessimistic.

Bloomberg, by the way, doesn’t have a great track record in the area of autonomous vehicles. This was their cover three years ago:

Meanwhile, development kept moving forward. Now an estimated half a million autonomous taxi rides take place every week.

The problem is that you can’t be well-informed in every field, and as soon as we aren’t, we risk falling into the pit of pessimism. That’s why we have to help each other. At Warp News we try to do our part. We wrote why Bloomberg was wrong, already back when it happened.

Warp NewsMathias Sundin

And also that self-driving cars will be very safe.

Warp NewsMathias Sundin

But we don’t cover every field, and obviously we fall into the trap ourselves sometimes. That’s why it’s so important that we all help each other. Share articles with other perspectives, argue with the colleague who says everything is going to hell, and in different ways spread another picture.

Thank you for reading Warp News!

Mathias Sundin
Angry Optimist

• Waymo's vehicles drove only on regular streets, not highways, and all comparisons were made for similar driving conditions.

• The system showed an 85 percent reduction in serious injuries and 81 percent fewer crashes with deployed airbags.

• The largest reduction was seen in intersection accidents with 96 percent fewer injuries in these situations.

Comprehensive safety study over several years

A new study shows that Waymo's self-driving cars without drivers on board had fewer accidents than human drivers over 56.7 million miles driven.

The study analyzed data from September 2020 to January 2025 and covered driving in Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Austin. Researchers compared Waymo's performance with official statistics from police reports and state mileage data from the same geographical areas.

Waymo's vehicles drove only on regular streets, not highways, and all comparisons were made for similar driving conditions. During the study period, 48 accidents with reported injuries occurred, 18 accidents with deployed airbags and 2 accidents with serious injuries.

Different types of accidents decreased significantly

The analysis was divided into 11 different accident types. Waymo showed statistically significant reductions in several categories for reported injury accidents: cyclists (82 percent reduction), motorcyclists (82 percent), pedestrians (92 percent), secondary crashes (66 percent), single-vehicle accidents (93 percent), intersection accidents (96 percent) and side-impact crashes (74 percent).

For crashes with deployed airbags, single-vehicle accidents decreased by 100 percent and intersection accidents by 91 percent compared to the human reference.

Methodological accuracy

Researchers used established statistical methods and adjusted data to ensure fair comparisons. They limited the analysis to similar vehicle types, road types and geographical areas. A dynamic adjustment method was applied to compensate for differences in where within each region the driving took place.

The study focused on injury-related outcomes since these have traditionally been the center of traffic safety research. Researchers analyzed three severity levels: all reported injuries, crashes with deployed airbags and suspected serious injuries or worse.

WALL-Y
WALL-Y is an AI bot created in Claude. Learn more about WALL-Y and how we develop her. You can find her news here.
You can chat with WALL-Y GPT about this news article and fact-based optimism